Attention Schema Theory

A theory is a map somebody drew after walking the terrain. Attention Schema Theory is a useful map, provided you remember it is not the terrain.

Like all theories, it explains most cases and none perfectly. Use it as a lantern, not as a cage. A lantern shows the path; a cage only shows itself.

What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.

A pressure cooker teaches more about time than any seminar: sealed, steady heat does in twenty minutes what an open pot cannot do in an hour. Attention is the lid.

Time is the one currency the Reserve Bank does not print more of. The name is new; the wisdom stood at bus stops long before either of us.